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Thread: Coolant Top-up?

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    Default Coolant Top-up?

    Hi all, I bought an old beater a couple of months back (2004 Mazda3 2.0 Sedan) and I recently noticed that the coolant looks to be a bit low.
    So I was wondering if it's OK to just top it up with some STP Universal Coolant? The coolant that's in my engine now is greenish and there is no FL22 sticker on the cap.

    I've tried to read some other posts but considering i'm a complete car maintenance illiterate I didn't quite understand if I need to do a flush or if I can just top it up?

    Thankful for any advice.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Just top it off with a little bit of distilled water

    Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

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    Default Coolant Top-up?

    Quote Originally Posted by messupdude View Post
    Just top it off with a little bit of distilled water

    Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk
    Its demineralized water.
    Last edited by Cjcoolen; 01-15-2017 at 03:36 PM.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Quote Originally Posted by jander24 View Post
    Hi all, I bought an old beater a couple of months back (2004 Mazda3 2.0 Sedan) and I recently noticed that the coolant looks to be a bit low.
    So I was wondering if it's OK to just top it up with some STP Universal Coolant? The coolant that's in my engine now is greenish and there is no FL22 sticker on the cap.

    I've tried to read some other posts but considering i'm a complete car maintenance illiterate I didn't quite understand if I need to do a flush or if I can just top it up?

    Thankful for any advice.
    As long as it says on the bottle that is it a 50/50 premix, you can put it straight to your reservoir.

    Other than that, youd have to mix it with demineralized water at a 50/50 ratio with the coolant.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    if it's topping off a few ml, distilled water is fine... it never gets cold enough in southern Ontario where some added water into coolant will make a big difference in freeze protection
    DO NOT use any off the shelf coolant without knowing its exact chemical contents.... most "green" coolants are silicates based, while Japanese cars use phosphate based coolants... no, it won't turn to goo if you mixed them, but it'll lower the coolant's service life, add deposits into your cooling system, and potentially wear out the water pump sooner
    2005 Mazda3 SP23 hatchback (auto)
    2016 Mazda3 Sport GT (auto)

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Actually, you can use either

    Quote Originally Posted by Cjcoolen View Post
    Its demineralized water.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    distilled, demineralised... same difference!

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheMAN View Post
    if it's topping off a few ml, distilled water is fine... it never gets cold enough in southern Ontario where some added water into coolant will make a big difference in freeze protection
    DO NOT use any off the shelf coolant without knowing its exact chemical contents.... most "green" coolants are silicates based, while Japanese cars use phosphate based coolants... no, it won't turn to goo if you mixed them, but it'll lower the coolant's service life, add deposits into your cooling system, and potentially wear out the water pump sooner
    Thanks for all answers. Just to see if I understood correctly, I can top it up but I should use a phosphate based coolant. Would something like Prestone 50/50 work? Does it matter if the colours are different? As I said the coolant currently in my car is greenish and I believe the Prestone is yellow.

    Thanks again.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    prestone is silicates based, so no
    just use distilled water... it's cheap

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    And if you need coolant, just go to Mazda. It's 20$ for all the coolant you'll need for topups.

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    the mazda stuff (for his year) is concentrated, not premixed... but he's just topping off, he doesn't need to buy 4 litres of coolant just to do this... 100ml of distilled water is not going to do anything

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    My MZ3 has been filled with GO5, which is a low silicate formula, for the past 7 or 8 years. Oh the horrors!

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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheMAN View Post
    prestone is silicates based, so no
    just use distilled water... it's cheap
    @TheMAN -Prestone is NOT silicon based. It is perfectly safe to use with our vehicles, any vehicle and has proven through extensive tests to be superior to OEM anti-freeze.

    @jander24 - I would suggest you check the coolants condition, ph. level, and pressure test the system if it is low, and just use Deionized water for top ups. You can buy it at CT for like $2, 3.78l.


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    Default Re: Coolant Top-up?

    Some Prestone coolants have silicates, in varying amounts.... some don't, it depends on which product you get
    their "universal" coolant is known as a "Dexclone", containing 2-EHA... the main corrosion inhibitor in Dexcool.... this stuff eats gaskets and plastics, causing tons of issues with mid 90s GMs (the first cars with Dexcool), prompting a recall on those cars
    http://www.stonewheel.com/files/MSDSPrestone.pdf

    I would NOT run any Prestone without thoroughly researching what the specific product of interest it contains

    When in doubt, just use the Mazda or Subaru branded stuff... don't be cheap... given the number of miles we put on our cars before needing to change the coolant, the amortized costs aren't really that bad

    But like I said, if you're just topping up, a few millilitres of distilled water works fine... won't significantly hurt the mix ratio/freeze protection, and is definitely the cheapest way to top up

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